Millennium goals

Swan Fund adopted the Millennium Goals and strives to fund korfball-projects that help realizing the UN Millennium Development Goals.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world’s time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability.

Korfball can develop transferable skills and toolkits which play a key role in a self-reliant and sustainable life and lead to income-generating activities and economic participation. It can advocate for ending poverty as well as generate funds and facilitate partnerships for this goal.

Through korfball, individuals can adopt active lifestyles that enhance well-being, health and prevent diseases, particularly noncommunicable diseases. Korfball can be a successful tool for health education and awareness raising towards healthy lives, especially among hard-to-reach or vulnerable individuals and communities such as refugees.

Korfball and physical education can motivate children and youth to attend and engage in formal and informal education, as well as improve academic performance and learning outcomes. Korfball can teach transferable life skills and key values such as tolerance, inclusion and can lead towards learning opportunities beyond school.

Korfball can contribute to the elimination of discrimination against women and girls by empowering individuals, particularly women, and equipping them with knowledge and skills needed to progress in society. Korfball can advocate for gender equality, address constricting gender norms, and provide inclusive safe spaces.

Sports contexts such as aquatic sports (water-korfball) can promote and realize improvements in water quality by reducing pollution, dumping and wastewater. Water-use efficiency can also be enhanced in sport facilities.

Korfball can contribute to targets on renewable energy, energy efficiency and access to clean energy by applying relevant standards and recommendations. It can support initiatives aiming at providing access to energy for all.

Korfball can promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth by aligning production and employment with labour standards, in particular being free from child or forced labour and discriminations of all forms. It can create job opportunities for all and develop employability enhancing skills which are transferrable into the workplace.

Korfball can encourage innovative approaches to industrialization and inspire innovation. It can contribute to equitable access for all by providing accessible sport infrastructure and spaces. Korfball can also support building and reconstruction of resilient infrastructure, including sport facilities.

Korfball can advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion of all irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity, origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, economic or other status. It can be a successful tool for tackling inequality in hard-to-reach areas and for empowering individuals and communities.

Korfball can help eliminate obstacles and barriers in the environment, transportation, public facilities and services to ensure access by all, including people facing those barriers and in vulnerable situations such as persons with disabilities. It can also promote the use of public safe spaces where diverse populations can interact and create friendly relations.

Korfball can support sustainable consumption and production, and nature-friendly lifestyles, for example through education and awareness raising campaigns around sport products, services, events and related industries.

Korfball can contribute to combating climate change, for instance through sport-based projects aimed at supporting the relief of communities and reconstruction of facilities in natural disaster recovery. It can also raise awareness on climate change by transmitting messages on its impacts and encourage action in this context.

Korfball and sport events, especially aquatic sport, can be platforms for advocacy towards the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and seas.

Korfball can advocate for the protection and sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, for instance with safeguards, activities and messages encouraging environmentally respectful practices in outdoor korfball.

Korfball provides a powerful communication platform for disseminating solidarity and reconciliation messages and fostering a culture of peace and dialogue, especially by promoting core values in sport such as respect, fair-play and team work. Korfball institutions can be effective, accountable and inclusive by respecting human rights and striving for good governance.

The global reach, unmatched popularity and universal character of sport make it a versatile means of implementation. Korfball can pool resources, create synergies, and build multi-stakeholder networks and partnerships for sustainable development and peace goals by bringing together a wide variety of actors from different sectors.